Power play fizzles as Penguins lose to Maple Leafs
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Toronto allowed Pittsburgh’s league-leading power play to convert only 1-of-9 chances without the injured Mario Lemieux, and Nik Antropov scored the decisive goal in a 4-2 Maple Leafs victory Thursday night. Travis Green scored short-handed and also helped set up Jyrki Lumme’s goal with 21/2 minutes gone as the Maple Leafs went 3-1 in the season series, winning twice in Pittsburgh.
Antropov, who had missed three games with a shoulder injury, put the Leafs ahead 3-2 midway through the second period when he swatted a loose puck into an open net. He later assisted on Alexander Mogilny’s 18th goal, an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin dropped down to play Alexei Ponikarovsky’s bad-angle shot from behind the net, only to have the puck slide through his pads directly to an open Antropov just above the crease.
Pittsburgh rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie it on second-period goals by Shean Donovan and Steve McKenna.
Lemieux, the NHL’s leading scorer, missed only his second game of the Penguins’ 42 games this season and his first because of an injury, a sore groin that also might keep him out of Saturday’s game against the Rangers.
Lemieux’s absence was glaring as the Penguins repeatedly failed to convert power-play chances, failing on five in the first period, two more in the second and another in the third.
The Penguins began the game converting a league-high 26.9 percent of their man-advantage opportunities, but got to Leafs goalie Ed Belfour only for McKenna’s goal that made it 2-2. Normally not a scorer, McKenna got his fifth goal in 10 games. He tipped in the puck as it lay in the crease following a give-and-go by Milan Kraft and Tom Kostopoulos, recalled from the minors earlier in the day.
During a nearly continuous stretch of power-play time that began with 6:02 gone in the second and lasted much of the period, Green grabbed the puck after Alexei Kovalev’s giveaway and skated in to beat Aubin with a backhander for his seventh goal.
Lumme scored when Penguins defenseman Hans Jonsson couldn’t clear the rebound of a shot off the crossbar that landed in front of Aubin.
Notes:@ Sundin might return for the Leafs’ game Monday against the Rangers. … The Maple Leafs outscored the Penguins 10-2 in the two games in Pittsburgh. … Belfour stopped 23 of 25 shots. … Pittsburgh started the game 50-of-186 on the power play.